Software · Education & science

Lightwave Explorer

Easily simulate nonlinear optics.

Completely free
Linux
Open source

Overview

Features described in its Flathub listing and in its GitHub repository: hardware acceleration.

Overview written by LicitPro from the documentation published by the authors and the cited sources; we have not tried the resource ourselves.

Excerpts that establish this information

“Supports both CUDA and CPU calculations.” — Flathub, 10 November 2026

At a glance

Lightwave Explorer is completely free: it is open source software, and every feature is available without paying or subscribing.

Its licence (MIT) is a permissive open source licence: use, modification and redistribution are allowed, including in commercial projects.

Strengths

Open source code
Commercial use allowed

About

Lightwave explorer is an open source nonlinear optics simulator, intended to be fast, visual, and flexible for students and researchers to play with ultrashort laser pulses and nonlinear optics without having to buy a laser first. Supports both CUDA and CPU calculations. Its purpose and goals are: Easily-extensible database of materials Multiple physical models, including the unidirectional nonlinear wave equation and finite-difference time-domain approaches. Efficient code so that complicated systems can be simulated in 3D: Real laser pulses can be messy, and if they weren't so before a nonlinear crystal, there's a good chance they are after. Multidimensional simulations open up the weird world of spatiotemporal couplings. You have options for very fast simulations when there's a symmetry to use (e.g. cylindrical), alongside fully 3D propagation A graphical interface that lets you see what you're doing A flexible sequence mode to string together elements: not just nonlinear crystals, also spherical or parabolic mirrors, apertures, filters, free space propagation and more Fitting/optimization routines A Python module for easy postprocessing

Description from Flathub — AppStream (Flathub)

Sources and checks

Facts collected from Flathub (credit card, source code, publisher, licence, free status, platforms, commercial use, version) — 9 November 2026
Last technical check: 9 November 2026
Description from Flathub — AppStream (Flathub)

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